Well, Archie's war wound is healing nicely and I'm no longer having to carry trays up to him in bed. I'm wondering though if he's suffering from a bit of concussion . Whenever I say 'lets write our blog' he takes off for the cat litter tray in the bathroom and I find a log in the bog. Maybe blog is cat speak for…well never mind. Where's the air freshener? I wasn't too happy with the cover for my book 'Midgie MacAlpin and the stone of Destiny' The selection of images available with Createspace is a bit limited especially for a book cover for children and young adults. So, I decided to design my own. This meant teaching myself photoshop and spending most of the last week cross-eyed as I fought with tracking and kerning text. I'm quite pleased with the result above, but I just know that as soon as it goes back up on sale, I'm going to spot a great glaring mistake. Oh dear just spotted one. There's a little blob of white on the bottom left hand corner. Too late now. Then there has been 'Scotland's Hidden Harlots and Heroine's to think about now that Pen and Sword have given me a definite launch date of 1st March. I've been taking a serious look at the questions I brought up in my last blog. After looking at the advice of writing and marketing experts, it appears writers nowadays also have to have 'media training' be able to write good press releases as well as be polished public speakers. I think you're going to see quite a bit of swearing in the next few blogs as I get everything wrong. Well, time to get up and put the porridge on and start the day, for the only way to get ahead - is to get started.

Author

When I was small I asked for a toy typewriter for Christmas. I wanted to be either a writer or a civil servant. Santa came and went and it was with great excitement I rushed to the tree to discover he'd left me - a pram and a doll that wet itself. It didn't take me long to realize that I didn't have what it takes to become a civil servant and many more years to realize part of my dream - becoming a published writer and author. Becoming the writer I want to be may take a while longer. With self publishing as well as traditional publishing widely available these days, it's far easier for writers starting out to cut their teeth. So, if writing for a living is your dream then make your motto -'PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED'